The Muggle Who Came To Dinner
by upwheretheairisclear
Summary: My first fanfic in a while! Harry Potter fanfiction too! A little ditty I've had permeating my head for a while so here it is on paper! I'm not sure about the canonical details it's an idea I had and I tried to explain it the best I could. Not meant to be a long epic tale, just a thought I had should someone of our muggleness let's call it, stumbled onto the grounds of Hogwarts.


Benjamin Pike was if nothing else, a insatiably curious person. He was also one of the biggest fans of outdoor activity and as such, spent most of the time he wasn't in college on hikes or immersing himself in nature in one way or the other. For this reason, summer break was his favorite time of his year. He had spent the better part of June camped out deep in the woods far from any civilization. As July began, he decided it was time to return to the world. He was confident enough in his survival abilities that he attempted his journey at least part of the way without a map (if he felt he was hopelessly lost he of course had one for emergencies). After three days hiking and camping, Benjamin came across a site that he was almost positive should not have been there, no guide books mentioned it and no one who had come up this way had ever mentioned it. But nevertheless, Benjamin gazed out upon a massive clearing, in the center of which sat the ruins of an ancient castle. There was no good reason to have any sort of building new or old, miles away from any city let alone a source of water.

Deciding there was no harm in exploring; Benjamin stepped over a broken, rusted iron gate and walked for what seemed like days. Upon reaching the ruins, he saw the massive wooden door was still intact, not just intact but immaculate. It was as if the door hadn't been touched by the wearing of time or had been built just recently. As he was examining the door that was an apparent gateway to nothing, it quietly drifted open, coming to a stop with the slightest click. Benjamin jumped back in shock and then again when he saw what was past the door. There was a gorgeous massive hallway, bedecked with candles seemingly suspended in midair. The ceiling either wasn't there or reflected the sky above. Against his better judgment, Benjamin stepped inside the threshold and slowly crept into the hallway. The building seemed to rise higher and higher around him as he walked closer and closer to the massive staircases at the end of the hallway, as he got closer, Benjamin heard muffled voices coming from of the hallway in another room. Making the decision he needed answers more than he needed to explore, he walked towards the sound of the voices, which sounded like they were having a serious conversation. "But how do you plan on explaining this to the Ministry?" a gruff voice asked.

"Severus," a softer voice calmly replied "the benefit of being in my position is that I do not have to explain my decisions."

"Still," the other voice said grudgingly, "the man hasn't worked, let alone been considered stable in years, and out of the blue you hire him to teach schoolchildren? Some eyebrows will be raised don't you think?"

"I do, and I certainly if they were here invested in this decision such as you, they would have every right to question it, such as you are doing." The other voice said. As Benjamin came into the room, he saw three figures sitting at a long, massive table, at the head of four other equally huge tables with hundreds upon hundreds of chairs along them. The man sitting in between the two others was the one Benjamin could without a doubt attribute the soft voice to; he had a calming aura about him along with a long grey beard and hair just as grey and just as long. He was calmly eating soup, the sleeves of his robes pushed back to avoid spilling. The man on his right adjusted his oily black hair and took a large gulp from the bowl in front of him.

"I'm not questioning, merely being pragmatic." He said, "It's a decision that has to be fully thought out."

"Severus, I know you aren't so foolish to think I haven't considered this from every angle." The other man said. "I know you're making sure you can be as informed as you like to be. But I insist that…" The man's voice drifted away as he saw Benjamin standing in the doorway. "Hello, may I help you?"

"Oh well, errrr" Benjamin began "I came through the door and I, just wondered where I was…" his voice also drifting away as he saw all three men, stared at him harshly.

"Walked in?" the man in the middle asked somewhat skeptically "you mean, just walked past the door?

"Yeah, I mean I am a little curious as to how you've managed to hide a building in all these ruins but." Benjamin said chucking slightly.

"Well," the man said "certainly I can try and explain the best I can. Why not you and I talk elsewhere?" the man said standing up. "Severus, Hagrid, good evening."

"Night Mr. Dumbledore." The large man to the left of him said.

"Good evening." The black haired man said.

"If you would follow me please, my office is probably a better place to speak." Dumbledore said gesturing out the door Benjamin was standing in. He waited for Dumbledore to walk past him before walking behind him up the stairs and through another smaller hallway, before coming out into a massive room, large enough for a cathedral could fit inside quite comfortably. That would have been the most impressive aspect of the room if the numberless staircases were moving back and forth around the many floors this room possessed.

"Well," Dumbledore said grinning playfully, "we shall see if they let me up without a fight, I would hope they would relent, having a muggle in tow and all."

"Muggle?" Benjamin inquired.

"Oh you know," Dumbledore said "someone like yourself. It's not supposed to be a hostile term. Just one we use to keep things simple."

"Like me?" Benjamin inquired as he and Dumbledore began walking up a staircase that immediately swung over to another part of the floor it lead up to.

"Oh yes, I'm getting ahead of myself." Dumbledore said "Wizards, witches, those of us who can use magic. We call people who can't muggles, or if they're born into a magical family, squibs which is a term I cannot stand. Sounds too…unpleasant to say you know?" Dumbledore said reaching the top of the second staircase they had climbed. "Good, they let us off easy tonight." Dumbledore remarked, "this way."

Benjamin followed Dumbledore down another hallway and up a winding case of stairs. "So you expect me to believe, there's what, some people out there who can do magic?"

"Well, I do enjoy hearing alternative theories." Dumbledore smiled as they reached the top of the staircase. "I know this was a bit of a stroll but, in this day and age can't be too careful and here I'm certain we won't be overheard in here." He opened the door and lead Benjamin into a room full of subtle noises from dozens of whirring, steaming, and buzzing contraptions sitting on shelves around the room. What space that didn't contain gadgets housed books that looked to be of all kinds and ages. Aside from the machinery strewn desk stood near the back of the room a golden perch upon which rested a majestic red bird. It chirped softly as Dumbledore sat at the chair behind the desk and set his gaze on Benjamin again. "Well, this little visit of yours while unexpected and certainly irregular, does prove most helpful, I will have to look at the spells guarding this building. You weren't supposed to see it, let alone get in."

"Well, if it helps, I saw a ruin; aside from the door, that looked brand new." Benjamin said. Dumbledore's eyes crinkled as his face broke into a massive smile.

"See? Those amongst my community who think muggles have nothing to offer, you are the reason they have so much to learn." Dumbledore said happily. "So, for those answers, I guess it can't do any harm. This is Hogwarts, it's a school for young witches and wizards to learn about their gifts and to hone them."

"Well, who'd have thought England had such an institution?" Benjamin said breathlessly chuckling. "I mean, I know it's a crazy world but, that's a nice bird by the way."

"Oh Fawkes, yes he is quite a specimen." Dumbledore said stroking the bird. "A phoenix, an intelligent, loyal companion, not prone to delivering letters like owls will but quite the amazing animal nonetheless."

"So this school, this" Benjamin began "I guess people like me aren't supposed to know about it?"

"No of course not, no offense intended obviously." Dumbledore said "I'm sure you would be good neighbors, but it's been the way we've done things and old habits die hard. My turn for a little information, how is the world out there?"

"Well, I've been camping for a month. But last time I was around any news there wasn't much new. They were looking for someone who went to Albania and didn't come back but that's the only thing that I can think of."

"Albania…." Dumbledore said pensively "There's quite the world beyond these walls…" he got up and began pacing the room. He stopped at a silver bowl near a cupboard, reached into a pocket of his blue robes and pulled a long white piece of wood, touched it to his forehead and dropped the silvery strand the pulled from his forehead and dropped it into the bowl. "What would you do?"

"I'm sorry what?" Benjamin asked confused.

"I fear there's a disaster on the horizon, in our world at the very least, and I fear in yours as well." Dumbledore said. "If there was something that you knew was happening, which had to be stopped no matter what the cost, what would you do?"

"Uhhhh, well," Benjamin said "I guess I'd do whatever I could do and try and get anyone I knew to help out, I mean if it's bad enough, people need to help I'm sure you already knew that though, you seem smart enough. Why do you ask?"

"Oh, I don't know," Dumbledore said distantly, "I suppose I'm still human, I'm surrounded by the same individuals most of the time, I just needed to get my feelings justified." He smiled "You can be around forever, learn plenty of what there is to know, and still fall to these sorts of emotions."

"I suppose. I still have a ways to go." Benjamin said.

"Well," Dumbledore said looking at Benjamin, his eyes giving Benjamin the sensation of having his soul bored into, "don't rush into it. Hopefully we still all have plenty of time left to take our time." He strode over to a bookshelf, wand still in his hand. "We reach the awkward part of the evening unfortunately." Dumbledore said as Benjamin stared at the wand. "You see, as much as I have enjoyed this albeit brief visit, and as worthy as you are of remembering thing, I'm afraid that I cannot let you go back to your life with this knowledge."

"But wait," Benjamin said shakily, "you're not going to, I mean you know? With that are you?" he said backing away from Dumbledore slowly.

"Oh dear, I seem to have given the wrong impression. No nothing so gratuitous." Dumbledore said reassuringly. "We have better methods than resorting to violence."

"Oh well, I suppose I don't have much say in the matter then?" Benjamin inquired, already knowing in the back of his mind what the answer was.

"No, I'm afraid not." Dumbledore said, sounding almost disappointed. "Before we take any further action, what is your name?"

"Benjamin sir, my name is Benjamin Pike."

"Well Benjamin, good luck to you, it has been a pleasure." Dumbledore said, simultaneously raising his Wand. A bright light burst from the tip and Benjamin's sight was soon engulfed in dazzling blindness.

"Benjamin? BENJAMIN!" a voice called distantly, "Benjamin! Wake up!"

"What!? I'm awake! What's going on?!" Benjamin said thrashing about in the shock of his sudden consciousness.

"Oh thank heavens!" His roommate Seth breathed a sigh of relief, "we found you by the campus library, you were well out and then I thought, what is he doing here anyways? He's gone till September, we've been trying to wake you for the past hour what happened!?"

"I don't know" Benjamin said confused, "I remember deciding not to look at a map for as long as I could on my way back from camping and then, this."

"Well don't do that again," Seth exclaimed "you scared me half to death! And what's this about?" he produced something from his back pocket and handed it to Benjamin, "You wouldn't let go of this to save your life, what's so special about it?" Benjamin took the long red feather in his hand and for some reason that escaped him, felt a sense of warmth and happiness fill his body. He turned grinning to Seth who still looked mortified.

"Seth," Benjamin began "I have absolutely know idea."


End file.
